Shame of Wahaareh, The

"Intoxicated by his shining splendor,
the reclining Lion thought he could soar.
In his pursuit of unattainable prey,
the gluttonous Lion stumbled into the sea."

- Excerpt from a speech given at a
military parade in Andaen, 3690 HE

The Shame of Wahaareh, also known as the Second Assault on Andaen, was the greatest challenge to the sovereignty of the City-State of Andaen since its founding. This was also the only major offensive launched against Andaen from outside the Haifatneh region, with few states elsewhere possessing the prerequisite combination of naval power and geographic proximity to Andaen to motivate an invasion of what was known to be a formidable city. From Zamayiir the Lion's perspective, however, the Marshal-Regent of Andaen was merely another warlord that stood in the way his ambitions, same as many Takheti warlords before him.
Marshal-Regent Fusahin and his coalition made several difficult decisions in conducting the defense of Andaen, ultimately bringing ruin upon the Fleet of Wahaareh and its lead commander Zamayiir, yet the defense in total proved so costly that it impoverished Andaen and eroded the legitimacy of Fusahin's rule in the eyes of his people. Thus, although the Shame of Wahaareh ended in a truce with minimal negotiations and did not lead to a single acre of land changing hands from one polity to another, it proved to be one of the single most politically tumultuous events of the Grim Era, driving both the dissolution of Great Wahaareh and sweeping political reforms in Andaen.

The Conflict

Prelude

While Andaen's double walls and the presence of the University of Esoteric Arts and Lore within its limits had long dissuaded potential invaders, even amidst the numerous power struggles of the early Grim Era, its location on the Strait of Andaen and its growing status as a trade hub still made it a valuable prize for those with significant political ambitions either in the Haifatneh Sea or the ocean to the north. Throughout the decade of 3680 HE, a power with exactly that sort of political ambition arose in coastal Takhet, namely Great Wahaareh, a rapidly expanding warlord state under the rule of Zamayiir the Lion. As one lesser Takheti warlord after another fell or swore fealty to The Lion, the prospect of expanding his nascent empire into the Haifatneh Sea was evidently more appealing than continuing to annex land in high-altitude Tahket Alay or the unforgiving deserts of Far Takhet.
It is possible that the battle that ensued could have been avoided entirely, if not for the common arrogance of men. Zamayiir, for his part, was that he was destined to continue expanding his empire unabated; after all, he had enjoyed an extensive string of successes in coastal Takhet, and soon after he first set his eyes on expanding Wahaareh's borders to the Haifatneh Basin, he successfully cowed the coastal city-state of Kailrana into allowing his galleys to harbor there. Meanwhile, Fusahin, the Martial-Regent of Andaen, was at least equally headstrong in his understanding that Andaen could not fall to ordinary attackers. (Fusahin apparently disregarded the fact that his city had been built upon the ashes of a citadel of the same name not two hundred years prior.) Based on accounts of the initial correspondence between emissaries from Wahaareh and representatives of Fusahin, Fusahin's confidence in the city's double walls, its advantageous geography, and the presence of the University of the Esoteric Arts was such that he all but goaded Zamayiir into following through with his offensive.

Deployment

For all the arrogance of the two men, neither went into this conflict entirely blinded by their confidence. Zamayiir, for his part, knew all too well that as Andaen straddled the Andaen Strait, it controlled the only entrance to the Haifatneh Sea, and this would ensure a flow of supplies that would be difficult even for the largest besieging force to disrupt. His strategy, then, was to conduct a direct assault upon the city, both by land and principally by sea with his one thousand galleys of legend. (While one thousand is a convenient number for storytelling, it likely is the case that between Zamayiir's own force projection and supplementary ships and conscripts from recently subjugated coastal cities, the famed Fleet of Wahaareh truly did approach this number.)
Fusahin, meanwhile, knew at least that he was to face a force far larger than most regional polities could muster, not to mention a plurality or perhaps a majority of Zamayiin's soldiers had already seen battle. He was also aware that even given Andaen's nigh-insurmountable defenses, information of such a massive army and fleet descending upon Andaen could be enough to erode the morale of the city's defenders. Fusahin was therefore proactive in recruiting mercenaries from other polities across the Haifatneh Sea and in Saukkan-Ghat. Cleverly, though at a considerable expense, Fusahin initially prioritized hiring mercenaries from states that had at best lukewarm relations with Andaen. Although these mercenaries would be less motivated to fight for Andaen in a truly pitched battle, Fusahin regarded Andaen's closer allies as reserves he could call upon later in the Andaen would still be able to call upon later in the course of a lengthy conflict, and doing business with less friendly states could be foster new alliances in the long run.
However, Fusahin's early attempts to harass Wahaareh's troops with mercenaries and its fleet with Andaen's own ships proved less impactful than he had hoped. While the mercenaries had comparable experience to Wahaareh's troops, Zamayiir's lofty ambitions—paired with his notable past successes—gave his Takheti troops inspiration and a sense of purpose that the mercenaries lacked. Further, the Andaeni galleys underperformed noticeably along the coasts of the northern ocean, being accustomed only to engagements on the comparatively gentle Haifatneh Sea. Having watched these developments unfold, Zamayiin decided to double down on naval reinforcements and supplies, hence the fabled fleet of a thousand galleys. Meanwhile, Fusahin's early deployment of mercenaries would add to the expenses of waging war, spelling more trouble for his leadership down the road.

Conditions

Wahaareh's land forces steadily made their way to Andaen; despite being comparable in strength to Andaen's recruits, the Takheti warriors rallying under Zamayiir's leadership were more tolerant of casualties than were the foreign mercenaries. Wahaareh's fleet secured naval supremacy nearly all the way to Andaen rather quickly, granting them the ability to support the overland forces via marine landings. Within a month of the initial skirmishing, Fusahin's court was already sending correspondence to friendly states requesting additional aid. The defenders of Andaen had also underestimated how much time they would have to train defenders for the city, leading to issues of both skill and morale on this front.
It was a long summer day when the land and naval forces of Wahaareh arrived within the vicinity of Andaen, conveniently timed with the post-harvest periods of all parties involved yet strenuous for prolonged combat. (Given the Haifatneh Basin's cool, wet winters and hot, dry summers, wheat and other cereal grains in this region—and those imported from here to the coasts of Takhet—are planted in the fall and harvested in the spring.) Complicating matters for the defenders of Andaen was that, based on either faulty or deceptive intelligence, Fusahin and his commanders had expected that the forces of Wahaareh would attempt to lay siege to the city rather than assault it directly. Having come to believe this, based partly on Wahaareh's impressive troop numbers, Fusahin initiated scorched-earth tactics, razing or sabotaging agrarian lands and other potential sources of supplies over a long stretch of land to the city's west in hopes of reducing the invaders' staying power. This decision came with greater protest than did the early, somewhat costly skirmishing against Wahaareh's forces.

The Engagement

The assault on Andaen was launched with little fanfare aside from the customary initial offer for the defenders to surrender and negotiate. It was not long before it became clear to Fusahin and his officers that Zamayiin's forces would not passively wait outside the city to starve out the defense. Mercenaries and new recruits were quickly assigned to the city's outer wall on its west flank, while forty galleys were deployed at the northern mouth of the Strait in attempt to prevent the Fleet of Wahaareh from making landfall either at the city's northern harbor or at its eastern flank. Given the lopsided numbers of the force under Zamayiin's command, Andaen's defenders knew they could hardly manage to defend the city on several different fronts. Meanwhile, the majority of local Andaeni troops were designated as reserves, stationed in the ctiy's northwest so that they could either defend the western walls or, if needed, fight to hold off marines at the northern harbor. Fusahin knew that if the battle devolved into urban warfare, the soldiers best suited to fight from one house or alley to the next would be those who lived there.
The defenders along the walls held their line well, as the fortifications of the Takheti cities Zamayiir's forces assaulted early in Wahaareh's rise paled in comparison to the defenses of Andaen. Particularly formidable were the Saukkanese cavalry, consisting mainly of the sons of gentry who On the sea, however, the Fleet of Wahaareh knew no rival. Even with the benefit of cover fire provided by Andaeni ballistae and mangonels on land, the forty Andaeni galleys deployed around the northern harbor at the time could only hold off the numerically far superior Fleet of Wahaareh for so long. In a dual demonstration of patriotic sacrifice on the parts of the Andaeni navy captains, one captain assigned roughly half of the galleys to push aggressively into Wahaareh's line, while the other half struck out into relatively deep waters—a considerable risk for galleys designed for warfare on an inland sea—in order to harass Wahaareh's fleet from another angle and complicate their effort to make landfall at the northern harbor. Somewhat surprisingly, it was Wahaareh's captains who chose to hug the coastline, having learned the perils of ocean sailing from generations of experience; the massive fleet of Wahaareh was funneled into a narrow strip of coast and harried on two sides by Andaeni ships. It was thus that while the forty Andaeni galleys were all seized or sunken, the Fleet of Wahaareh lost more than three times as many vessels before securing naval supremacy north of the Strait of Andaen. These greater losses of ships equated to considerable losses of Wahaareh marines as well, which would have weighty implications for the later stages of the battle.

Mounted mercenaries clash with invaders outside the walls of Andaen.

It was at that point that the battle grew perilous for the defenders. Funneling additional galleys through the Strait would be at least as costly as Wahaareh's initial naval assault, yet the alternatives would have been inadequate resistance to Wahaareh's landing operations. Fusahin, against increasing resistance from his own advisors, insisted on sending additional galleys, no more than three abreast to safely navigate the Strait, as relief for the soldiers who would have to defend against Wahaareh's marines in the north harbor.
The marines' advance was slow and hard-fought despite their experience and tenacity, as much of the rest of the city being uphill from the northern harbor. Wahaareh's officers were also inclined to blame the works of Haifah witches for their troops' weakening morale, but it is at least as likely that the Takheti soldiers were surprised and dismayed by the tenacity of Andaen's warrior women, inheritors of a Haifatnehti tradition quite foreign to them. Resupplies of troops and equipment were also waylaid by an unexpected turn in the weather. Many accounts of the battle simply attribute this to good fortune on the part of Andaen, yet Takheti official histories readily blame this, too, on Haifah spellcraft, claiming that witches churned the waters and made the winds blow like bellows. To the credit of the Takheti historians, the presence of the aforementioned University within Andaen certainly meant that some number of mages were residents of the city; while mages in that day could not call down the fire and thunder of the Crusader priests and paragons of old, they were certainly capable of turning the tide of battle through more subtle works.
As the sun began to set on the first day of the battle, the progress made by Zamayiir's forces was minimal despite the seriousness of the casualties on both sides. At the western walls, one of the outer gates had been breached, but being crammed between the two walls was far from an ideal position for the invaders. Meanwhile, the northern harbor wholly belonged to Zamayiir's marines, and it did not appear that the defenders could readily afford to divide their forces to defend the eastern flank of the city. Nonetheless, continuing the assault into the night was an unappealing option, as was retreating from the ground they had gained for the sake of finding refuge.

Andaeni Galley by Xah

The following morning, the defenders of Andaen feared that they would be pressed on both fronts. Thankfully for them, whether thanks to sheer luck or unexpectedly successful witchcraft, intimidating columns of storm clouds and near-gale-force winds threatened the Takheti troops stationed at the harbor. Insubordination on that front followed, as those soldiers feared the possibility of losing their only means of retreat if their ships were to be lost while they carried out their offensive. While a few small units of Andaeni troops were posted to monitor the situation at the harbor, Andaen's defenders were able to concentrate their efforts on the besieged western gates.
Stalled offensives on both fronts—and promises of daily compensation for Andaen's mercenaries—bolstered the defenders' confidence and upended the morale of Wahaareh's forces. As noon passed and the coastal storms did not subside, an unknown number of insubordinate marines re-boarded their galleys and departed from the harbor. Andaeni accounts report that ten or more galleys retreated, though it is more likely that at least a few of these galleys were deployed by naval officers to apprehend the mutineers. Regardless, Wahaareh's land forces beheld the spectacle during their midday break and were left confused as to the status of the assault. When Zamayiir was informed of these developments, he was faced with a difficult decision: He could persist with the assault, losing face due to the mutiny, or claim that the naval movement was in fact part of a controlled, strategic retreat.
What transpired during Zamayiir's emergency meeting with his leading officers unfortunately did not make its way into the historical record. Perhaps the announcement of a controlled retreat really was motivated by Zamayiir's desire to save face; perhaps Zamayiir's offciers persuaded him that the assault was growing too costly to serve his imperial ambitions. It is also speculated that as rumors of Haifah mages' or witches' involvement in the conflict became more widespread, Zamayiir himself or his officers feared the possibilty of personally facing retaliation via spellcraft. (Historians of Andaen's academic and magical institutions also note that while Andaen's practitioners of magic typically preferred to keep themselves removed from political and military matters, the Takheti people's cultural distrust of magic likely made these mages and witches foresee persecution should Andaen fall to Zamayiir.)
Takheti historians and even a number of their Haifah counterparts contend that the retreat of Wahaareh's forces was intended to be a temporary measure; presumably, they could have waited for the storms to subside and re-launched their assault long before Andaen's walls and fleets would have recovered. However, the fact that Northeast Tahuum Itaqiin's greatest fighting force (at the time) retreated from Andaen at all undermined confidence in the campaign, and entire units of Takheti soldiers and marines—too many for Wahaareh's political leadership to effectively prosecute—returned to their homeland.

Outcome

In the immediate aftermath of the assault, the battle was regarded as a resounding victory for Andaen, as a simple truce-by-courier, without terms, followed the retreat of Wahaareh's forces. The city's residents indulged in parades and celebrations, and for a while, Fusahin's image was restored in the eyes of his subjects.
The retreat en-masse of Wahaareh's forces was not without consequences for those of Andaen's subjects living outside its walls, however. As discipline collapsed among Wahaareh's troops, many bands and units pillaged those parts of the countryside that hadn't already been subjected to Fusahin's scorched-earth strategy. After all, the supply reserves of the (formerly) assaulting forces had already been stretched, and the Takheti soldiers had initially anticipated bringing the substantial loot of Andaen with them as they returned to their families. It didn't help matters that Andaen's already-battered forces were concentrated within the city walls, and the city's leadership feared that mobilizing a large number of troops to drive off the pillagers could be interpreted as a violation of their truce, leading to a subsequent conflict that Andaen could not afford to fight.
Thus, Fusahin would be remembered equally for having snatched victory from the jaws of defeat and for having laid the groundwork for the next political crisis of his reign.

Aftermath

The effects of the failed assault were first felt in Great Wahaareh. The military insubordination that motivated the initial retreat persisted when the Takheti forces returned home, arousing fears that there an armed rebellion would rise against Zamayiir's rule. Heading off the possibility of a civil war, Zamayiir suddenly announced his abdication—or at least his proxies did—on the Seventh of Haidirat, barely three weeks after the Assault on Andaen had ended.
The exact nature of Zamayiir's abdication is the stuff of no small number of tall tales and conspiracy theories. The official and most widely accepted explanation is that Zamayiir, unable to face the shame of his defeat, sent his inferiors to announce his abdication on his behalf while he took his own life. There is no official record as to how exactly he did so, but poetic retellings of history portray him as either walking into the sea or trekking up the slopes of Takhet Alay, where he could survey the empire he'd created one last time before throwing himself over the cliffs. More critical and dissident accounts, meanwhile, either depict him taking his life in a less dignified manner, such as self-poisoning or hanging, or his bodyguards and/or advisors throttling or stabbing him during their last meeting. (While such claims are entirely unsubstantiated, the fact that Zamayiir's remains have never been found lends equal credibility to all of these theories in the minds of many.)
The post-conflict outcomes for Marshal-Regent Fusahin and Andaen were more complex. The initial celebrations of their victory were soon marred by reports of the unfettered pillaging of the countryside. As the vineyard and orchard harvests scheduled at the end of the summer proved unproductive, and the city reeled from the expenses of its own defense, an economic depression came paired with widespread panic over the strong possibility of winter food shortages. Worsening matters still was that the considerable casualties faced in the city and countryside alike meant there would be a shortage of laborers available to carry out the planting of that fall's crop of cereal grains.
A new crisis of confidence faced Fusahin, and the aforementioned economic depression and failures of vineyard and orchard yields did great harm to the personal interests of his advisors, themselves mainly merchants and entrepreneurs as well as several scholars. It was likely for this reason that when riots and raids of the city's grain reserves ensued, the advisors, far from calling for an end to the bedlam, vocally supported the protestors. Fusahin initially led the city's soldiers in cracking down on these acts of dissent—even arresting two of the advisors in a particularly heated episode—but the apparent division within the city's leadership shook the confidence of Fusahin's subordinates in the military; official defections and instances of soldiers joining the granary raids further emboldened the dissidents. (The Esoteric University's faculty officially recused themselves from taking a side in the civil unrest, though unofficially, it is known that a majority of those faculty members who did choose to get involved in the city's politics sided with the protestors.) As Athamir (the next month) rolled around, the advisors had all resigned and begun openly campaigning for Fusahin's deposition. (It is perhaps ironic that this turn of events could have offered the ideal window for Zamayiir to "liberate" the people of Andaen from their dysfunctional leadership, had he persisted in administrating Great Wahaareh.)
The Eighth of Athamir would go down in Northwest Tahuum Itaqiin's history as the beginning of the end of the warlord-state of Andaen. Fusahin, embattled on all sides, formally announced his resignation and stated that he would leave the administration of Andaen to its military—not his former advisors. The following morning, however, the ex-advisors held a rally at the widest intersection of Procession Street (which would later be known as Sojourners' Street) in which they took turns giving rousing speeches and arguing in favor of a civilian government for Andaen. Their main argument was that as long as Andaen was ruled by a military government, the city's fiscal expenditures and development would continue to prioritize martial interests and not the commercial growth that could secure friendly relations with its many regional neighbors. (The advisors did not make such speeches without a large helping of personal motivation.) By the Ninth of Athamir, a substantial number of the city's soldiers had already joined the dissidents, and the rest could not muster the will to put their own fellow residents to the sword and suppress the rally. The next day, General Huhirin, a well-known military leader who had originally ascended the ranks as a skillful cavalryman, rode to Procession Street on horseback and in uniform, greeting the protestors at their camps before taking it upon himself to negotiate with the ex-advisors directly. Likely having seen the writing on the wall, Huhirin gave his blessing to the ex-advisors as they drafted their charter for the city's administration by a self-elected, eight-member Council of Andaen and its Chief Magistrate, a political feat they were only able to accomplish because they had already earned the popular support of the public.

Historical Significance

Legacy

That this conflict is referred to as the "The Shame of Wahaareh" in popular histories makes its legacy for the Takheti states and peoples readily evident. Though Zamayiir himself is chiefly blamed for the outcome of the battle, its politcal repercussions soon propagated the end of his dynasty as a whole, and the subsequent war of succession fractured into numerous smaller polities, none of which would rise to a prominence comparable to Wahaareh at its peak.
In Andaen, meanwhile, personal journals recovered from the estates of some of Andaen's leading families indicate that the city's elite doubted whether there would be a genuine transition from a military-centric economic engine to a commercial one. After all, it was feared that word of Andaen's battering by foreign forces and its domestic tumult could inspire local rivals to try their hand at subduing the city to their wills. Andaen's new Council, however, decided to bet on prioritizing the development of regional trade partnerships as well as a cultural industry for Andaen, using their control over the city's beleaguered food supplies to incentivize blacksmiths, tailors, and other craftspeople to shift their operations from wartime production to the production of exports and the construction of aesthetically pleasing urban spaces that would hopefully impress visitors to the city. Simultaneously, the Esoteric University and other academic institutions—likely after some arm-twisting behind the scenes—sent letters to prominent polities in the Haifatneh Basin and Saukkan-Ghat, inviting those polities' elites to send their children and relatives to Andaen to further their educations. (The lands of the failing Great Wahaareh, meanwhile, were in such disarray that no such letters were successfully delivered to its cities if these were sent at all.) Perhaps due equally to these political maneuvers and a power vacuum in Northwest Tahuum Itaqiin, Andaen managed to rebuild its foundation and status with little opposition, save for pirates and bandits who occasionally disrupted its trade activities.

Conflict Type

Battle

Start Date

24 Taagir, 3690 HE

Ending Date

26 Taagir, 3690 HE

Location

Andaen, The Free City of

Map: Great Wahaareh and its Neighbors, c. 3688 HE

Map Key: Climate Zones

Belligerents

Forces of Wahaareh

• Great Wahaareh

Led by

• Zamayiir the Lion

The Warlord City-State of Andaen

Led by

• Fusahin, Last Marshal-Regent of Andaen

Strength

Total land forces: 59,000
42,500 infantry
1,500 archers
9,000 camel cavalry
6,000 camel cavalry archers

Naval forces:
est. 900 galleys
(700 triremes, 160 quadriremes, 40 quinqueremes)
est. 15,000 marines

Total land forces: 14,700
8,000 infantry
500 archers
800 slingers
200 heavy cavalry
4,000 mercenary infantry
1,200 mercenary cavalry

Naval forces:
182 triremes
2,600 marines

Casualties

est. 16,000 land forces
est. 185 galleys (20 to inclement weather; 4 to subsequent engagements with mutineers)
est. 3,400 marines (including 60 executed mutineers, according to official accounts)

est. 3,600 land forces
est. 2,200 mercenaries
79 triremes
est. 1,600 marines

civilian casualties: est. 2,000 - 8,000 (mostly outside city limits)

Objectives

(failure) annex the City of Andaen

(failure) secure access to the Strait of Andaen for future campaigns in the Haifatneh Sea

(success) defend the City of Andaen

(failure) prevent pillaging of the countryside under Andaen's jurisdiction

(short-term success) uphold the legitimacy of the Marshal-Regent's rule